Template - how do you explain the blog section?

my first post here I’m working on a HTML template. I’ve seen that not only the Wordpress themes, but also most of the templates, have a blog section.

I wonder how do authors without PHP knowledge (are there any?) explain to the client (in the tutorial that comes together with the template) how to use the blog section.

I’m asking because I’m able to make a template, but not a theme yet – I’m just starting to learn about Wordpress theme development and I really don’t know how to approach this issue. I suppose I should explain somehow to the buyer how to make the blog work? Or do you just provide an info like “and here goes the PHP, you know what to do” ?

I think you just need to flag that what is there is a template to make posts and the master blog page BUT to sync them together would require extra PHP customization which is standard for HTML templates.

If you want to link to tutorials or offer the service privately that’s cool but never assume buyers will be experts and use phrases like “you know what to do” a sit invites extra hassle for you! Good luck

Ironically most don;t come with anything – either assuming buyers understand it or just avoiding bringing up something that generally requires more explanation!

The authors who I work with or are in contact with tend to cover all bases. In my opinion (as an experienced buyer but with some development knowledge), I think it is best to explain in your documentation how to edit the different parts of the blog posts and main page e.g. how to link a post preview to a post in its simplest form BUT then add a caveat bit that explains that by default HTML templates do not operate the same way WP etc do without the PHP which is not included.

If you really want to get clever you could do a little mini tutorial/explanation of how and why PHP makes blogs work but its not necessary and would be way above and beyond the call of duty.

Out of curiosity and definitely off topic, how long would it take for a PHP ultra-beginner (but a fast learner!) to learn Wordpress themes development? I know Wordpress pretty well from the user’s point of view, but if it comes to development, I can only make a very simple theme – without a dedicated panel with options etc. I actually made only one so far, based on copy-paste from tutorials, so a I consider myself a total newbie.

I would like to develop in this area, but I need an estimated time frame to be able to set my priorities and so on.

It is really a personal thing but if you look at WP codex and dig around in some themes here it is not actually that complicated I do not think. I am not really experienced enough in PHP to comment but I have been doing a course on Udemy in it and ripping apart themes we have purchased form here and its a lot less scary than I thought it would be.

To me the best thing you can do is submit some HTML templates and get used to how this marketplace operates and learn in the meantime. Plus you might get a developer who wants to partner on developing a WP version and maybe you could learn from following that process.

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